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Course Descriptions

DS 201 Digital Identities and Communities
Students will reflect on their participation in digital cultures and communities to examine the structure and function of digital environments. They will explore how digital platforms inform and are informed by self-understanding, identity performance, community membership, and material experiences. Fulfills Foundations - Social and Behavioral Sciences.

DS 202 Digital Data and Design
Students will gain a fundamental understanding of how digital data is collected, analyzed, and visualized/represented on various platforms. They will learn to locate and assess sources of data, and effectively and ethically represent those data, using relevant communication tools.

DS 310 Digital Preservation and Archiving
Explores challenges in digitization and managing digital content over time. Analyzes the methods librarians, archivists, curators, and other information professionals use to preserve and make digital content accessible. Emphasizes the changing nature of digital content, digital loss and persistence, and how technology helps and hinders archiving and accessibility

DS 330 Game Culture
An examination of digital games, design, and player and their roles in society and culture. The course investigates purposes of games such as entertainment, education, defense, marketing, health, urban planning, and emergency management. Students explore game theory and how games shape and are shaped by culture, society, and exigency.

DS 350 Social Media in Culture
An examination of social media's role in shaping individuals and communities. Students evaluate how social media platforms express political, social, and cultural power. Students analyze how social media expands and limits conversations on issues concerning race, gender, sexuality, and diaspora. Part of the Information, Innovation, and Technology Issue. Prerequisite: Junior Standing.

DS 360 Ethics of Digital Culture
This course will investigate the ethical concepts emerging alongside digital innovation. Students will explore topics such as (but not limited to) social media, issues of privacy and security, cyber warfare, virtual representation, and internet access, plagiarism, and sustainability.

DS 495 Digital Studies Capstone
A culminating course in which students will demonstrate conceptual understanding and creative abilities as they relate to digital studies. Each student will complete a digital project and will reflect on their trajectory through the curriculum and how it relates to future goals.